Mtn. Laurel owners say venue not closing yet

Reports of the demise of Mount Laurel Performing Arts Center have been greatly exaggerated, according to its owners.

Comment

By MICHAEL SADOWSKI

poconorecord.com

By MICHAEL SADOWSKI

Posted Mar. 29, 2013 at 12:01 AM

By MICHAEL SADOWSKI

Posted Mar. 29, 2013 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

Reports of the demise of Mount Laurel Performing Arts Center have been greatly exaggerated, according to its owners.

Officials from center owner O'Neill Properties in King of Prussia said Thursday that the Bushkill concert venue, despite published reports to the contrary, is not closing and still hopes to make an announcement "as soon as it can" regarding the short and long-term future of the center.

Spokesman Dan Mita of O'Neill Properties vaguely said the center plans to announce a 2013 season in coming weeks, but couldn't nail down a date.

"The Mount Laurel Center Performing Arts Center is positioning itself to make an announcement as soon as it can with regard to any and all hosted events for the 2013 season," he said.

According to published reports, 2012 venue general manager Christopher Perrotti said he believed the center wouldn't open for 2013 — and there was mounting evidence to support that claim.

There has been no announcement of what acts would be coming to the venue for a summer season, while other venues already have full slates. Neither the website nor the social media sites had been updated since last summer.

"We understand why there could be speculation in the absence of an announcement to date," Mita said. "But no decision has been made to close the center. The ownership is continuing to assess how to position and operate the center this year in the short term and for the long term."

It wouldn't be the first time the venue has made a later announcement for a summer concert series — though those April announcements in 2006 and 2011 were less than promising.

Both times it happened, management officials would later say it was too late to successfully pull off a full concert season.

The last two summers, the venue has had two different management teams. Neither was hired back.

Last year, the center moved from its 10,000-person capacity with lawn and indoor seats to only the 2,500 seats indoor seats. Lawn seats were closed.

It was the first time since it opened in 2002 that the lawn seats were not open for national concerts at the Bushkill Falls Road venue in Lehman Township.

The center was closed for nearly three summer seasons from 2008 to 2010 while a manager could be found, and the owners decided to revive it.

Perrotti was "let go," according to Mita, last August near the end of the concert season. He had taken over for New Jersey-based The Total Concert Team, which also was not hired back.

Mita didn't say whether another management team has been chosen yet for the 2013 season.

He did say center ownership has learned much in the last two years about the direction of how the center should function in the future.

"For one, we've learned there is a very broad market for the center, and that it draws a large amount of patrons from northern New Jersey," he said. "And that's much further east than what we had originally assessed. We also learned that digital marketing is king these days. It's going to help us succeed."